Fourth Times A Charm

I did not have time for a long hike today so I thought I would go back to Abrams Creek Campground and have another go at finding any trace of the cemetery that is supposed to be in the area. I first heard about it from Ben Bacot who said it was on his Garmin. I had a look and noticed it was on mine too. So I went to have a look. It is in the area of the water tower and I have been told it is supposed to be about 100 feet from the tower. I found nothing where the waypoint was and I found nothing near the tower. In my hike with the Ledbetter’s last week I did learn that Mr. Ledbetter had been to it and that it was all field stones. He said something about going across the creek which I did twice today. I found rocks in several spots but none that would be consistent with being grave stones. Understand that field stones are just rock markers so this makes it even more difficult. I was looking for something a little more uniform such as a head stone and footstone. I think I am just going to have to ask very nicely for Mr. Ledbetter to accompany me and see if he can remember the spot. This was my fourth try and I still came up with nothing.

So take a look at the right side of the map below. Boy Boring once lived where today’s Ranger station is.

From the water tower I did a big loop up the ridge. I came back around the water tower and went back across the creek (not on the map.) I saw a faint trail going up from the trail to the 516? waypoint. It was a clear area but I still found no field stones. I did find one indention that could have been where a stone was.

So I head back past the ranger station and just up the park road where you can see a trail leave the road then cut up the ridge. Ben Bacot told me on Thanks giving that I needed to go check that out. So Ben, here’s the report – I found nothing! LOL!

Picture on left is the trail going up. On the right is the pond at the end which is all I found. It is a small pond and before I got past it I could see an open area and a house.

This is why when I made the map I used the 2008 Garmin map which shows the park in green. Despite the fact that I saw no signs I was clearly well out of the park! I decided just for fun I would bushwhack up the ridge and back down behind the ranger station. It was UGLY to the top but cleared out on the way down so even though it looks shorter it was NOT easier.

I still had some time so I went for a drive down to highway 129 to look for some home sites right off the road on the 1931 map. Just before you reach the highway there is a pull off on the left side of the road. There is big pile and believe it or not that was once a home site according to the map. I looked for some other possible sites on the map but found nothing left but a lot of fallen trees. Hmm must be my day for not finding anything!

I did finally find one home place. Back in one of those hollows off the lake where you have the run off where once was a small creek. The creek is not named on my GPS and had steep ridges on both sides. I decided to take the left side which was a mistake. More UGLY! I came down past the creek and backtracked up and found an indentation where perhaps a cellar was. I found a brick nearby. Just past this was the spring house. In the map below I have the spring and a look back into the hollow from the road.

I went back a little further and had a look around but never found any chimney remains. As you can see I took a different way back to the car.

On the way back up Happy Valley Road I stopped at the Happy Valley Cemetery which has many of the residents that once lived in the park buried there.

Anyone know what this used to be? It is right next to the cemetery and from the looks of the inside it was once a store.

If anyone has ever actually visited that cemetery near the campground I would love for you to show me where it is. The same goes for the Cooper cemetery that is right off Happy Valley road and just in the park boundary.

This will not go down as one of my greatest blogs, however, I thought I might write one about the other side of looking for home sites. Every time I hike with Mike Maples he points up some holler and says something like “Nothing up there or its nothing but ugly. Sometimes knowing where not to go is just as important as knowing where to go!

I agree that anytime spent in the mountains is worthwhile and good. Just don't want to paint a picture that it is always a glorious hike with big chimneys or lost cemeteries. And of course those hikes where you find lots of good stuff do make the pot just that much sweeter! But there is something to be said for venturing into the unknown. I just got back from a couple more short hikes off HWY 129 where I did just that.

Sometimes the journey is more important than knowing where to go and finding the end results. Nothing but ugly is sometimes very nice after looking at it for awhile, lol. Good luck going back AGAIN in the quest.